Let's Face It!
| Let's Face It! | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Music | Cole Porter |
| Lyrics | Cole Porter |
| Book | Herbert and Dorothy Fields |
| Basis | The play The Cradle Snatchers by Russell Medcraft and Norma Mitchell |
| Productions | 1941 Broadway 1942 West End |
Let's Face It! is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields is based on the 1925 play The Cradle Snatchers by Russell Medcraft and Norma Mitchell.
The 1941 Broadway and 1942 West End productions were successful, and a film version was released in 1943.
Three suspicious wives, Maggie Watson, Nancy Collister and Cornelia Pigeon invite three Army inductees to Maggie's summer house in Southampton on Long Island to make their husbands jealous. Jerry Walker is engaged to Winnie Potter, and, because he needs the money, agrees to the plot. The wives's philandering husbands leave on yet another camping trip. Winnie, hearing of Jerry's involvement, brings in two friends (who are actually girlfriends of the other two soldiers) to pretend to be interested in the older men. The husbands actually do go fishing. Winnie and her friends crash Maggie's party and the husbands unexpectedly return home.
"A Fairy Tale" and "Melody in Four F" were written by Sylvia Fine and Max Liebman. Both were dropped later in the run, and "Melody in Four F" was replaced by "It Ain't Etiquette" from Du Barry Was a Lady.
The original production was directed by Edgar MacGregor and choreographed by Charles Walters. After a tryout at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, the musical opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on October 29, 1941 and closed on March 20, 1943 after 547 performances. The cast included Danny Kaye as Jerry Walker, Eve Arden as Maggie Watson, Edith Meiser as Cornelia Abigail Pigeon, Vivian Vance as Nancy Collister, Benny Baker, Mary Jane Walsh as Winnie Potter, and Nanette Fabray. The cast also featured a then unknown Carol Channing as Eve Arden's understudy. Danny Kaye had made his successful debut earlier in the year in Lady in the Dark, and Porter allowed the actor's wife, Sylvia Fine, to add two comedy numbers into the score for him to sing. Later in the run, Carol Goodner replaced Eve Arden and José Ferrer replaced Kaye.
...
Wikipedia